Department of Political Science

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Department of Political Science

Digital Games – The key to studying Cosmopolitan

Democracy?

An investigation into the suitability of Games and MMORPG communities for the study of Cosmopolitan Democracy

Matthew Bridger

Independent research paper, 15 credits Political Science III (30 credits)

Spring 2020

Supervisor: Jens Marquardt

Word count (including everything): 11 376

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Digital Games – The key to studying Cosmopolitan

Democracy?

An investigation into the suitability of Games and MMORPG communities for the study of Cosmopolitan Democracy

Matthew Bridger

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify if digital games could be used as a method to study Cosmopolitan Democracy. Using a mixed methods approach, players of the Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) community were asked to answer a questionnaire concerning the importance of age, gender and nationality of other players, in order to see if their values aligned with those of Cosmopolitan Democracy. The questionnaire also investigated the use of the Auto-Translate feature in FFXIV to examine its usefulness as a lingua franca to bridge gaps in language equality. Furthermore a literature review on the use of digital games in education and ideologies was conducted. The results showed that the values of the FFXIV community do align with those of Cosmopolitan Democracy, that Auto- Translate successfully acts as a lingua franca, and that games have a history of teaching players about differing ideologies. The conclusions advocated the creation of a game based on Cosmopolitan Democracy, allowing for players to experience the democratic model and for researchers to gather data on its functionality.

Keywords

Cosmopolitan Democracy, Digital Games, MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV, Age, Gender, Nationality, Lingua Franca.

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Introduction 1.

With the end of the Cold War in 1991, the popularity of the Realist perspective within political science academia began to lessen. This has resulted in the growth and rise in popularity of alternative theoretical perspectives such as Constructivism and Feminism, but has also resulted in scholars questioning the structured democratic models that are used throughout the world (Baylis, Smith & Owens, 2017). From this questioning, scholars are now suggesting new democratic models that may prove beneficial for not only democratic levels, but the global populace as a whole.

Cosmopolitan Democracy is one such theorem that has gained some popularity within the academic world since its creation in the 1990s, suggesting that global citizenship and governance is the next logical evolution to democratic practice (Fultner, 2014). This concept has not come without its own criticism however, with arguments that the concept itself is too idealistic and cannot possibly work due to differences in culture, language and ideals present throughout the world (Miller, 2010).

In order to give academic criticism to a theory, and also refute said criticism, scholars would normally find instances via case studies that show support for either opinion using Most and Least likely case study methodology (Moses & Knutsen, 2019). However, as there is currently no country practicing Cosmopolitan Democracy, scholars have been limited to studying aspects of the theorem within non-cosmopolitan democracies. For example Frith’s (2008) study into Cosmopolitan Democracy Equality concerning gender within EU polity or Hale and Koenig-Archibugi’s (2019) investigation into global polity values. While these studies can show results proving, or disproving, the viability of aspects of Cosmopolitan Democracy, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Without the ability to see the entirety of a democratic model in practice it is impossible to know if the model itself can ever function as its design intended. This impossibility presents a weakness for both the supporters and the critics of Cosmopolitan Democracy, as without evidence that the theorem does or does not work as a complete entity the debate over whether it can work will be never ending.

It is precisely this problem that this paper intends to provide a solution for. While Cosmopolitan Democracy is not currently practiced, there are avenues of investigation that have not yet been explored where Cosmopolitan Democracy may be being practiced or could be practiced and measured. One such avenue is that of digital games, which offer their players opportunities to enter and experience roles, identities, ideologies and worlds that are not their own or even worlds that do not exist. It may be possible to use an existing digital game, or to create a new one, in which players could experience the Cosmopolitan Democratic model and, in turn, allow researchers to study the theorem in practice. Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games, or MMORPGs, cater to a global player base; communities that extend beyond state borders. While these communities do not encompass the entire population of the world, the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, henceforth FFXIV, announced 18 million registered users (Neal, 2019). An extremely large, multinational population that academics have yet to utilise in the study of Cosmopolitan Democracy and, if willing to participate in these studies;

a community that could provide evidence for either side of the debate on whether the Cosmopolitan Democratic theory can work.

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Furthermore, Players of MMORPGs invest hundreds of hours into these digital

worlds, both ingame and via official and fan forums (Korkeila & Hamari, 2020; Seay, Jerome, Lee & Kraut, 2004; Seay & Kraut, 2007). If MMORPGs can be seen as a suitable testing ground for political theory, such large time investments into these digital worlds, could provide researchers with extensive data over extended periods of time, rather than the small snapshots that an individual survey would provide. Such data over time would allow for more detailed analysis of theories and problems. Studies via digital games can allow researchers to actually see actions undertaken by participants rather than relying on what participants say they do, or would do.

Purpose and research question 1.1.

In this research paper, I intend to investigate how players of MMORPGs and mechanics available within these games can fulfil the criteria of Cosmopolitan Democracy. The

importance of this result is twofold, for if MMORPGs or their mechanics can be used to test Cosmopolitan Democracy then a new tool has been discovered that will allow both sides of the argument to finally provide much needed evidence to support their positions. Similarly, due to Cosmopolitan Democracy not currently being practiced, the population of the world has no way of experiencing it, severely limiting understanding of the concept beyond a theoretical level. If MMORPGs or their mechanics can fulfil criteria of Cosmopolitan Democracy then a tool can be created to show the world exactly what Cosmopolitan Democracy entails, allowing the people who are supposed to practice this new model of democracy to actually experience it. If the model is to their liking, then we may see increased support for the new democratic model. However, we first need to know if this is even

possible. Thus, I pose the question: How can MMORPGs and their mechanics fulfil the criteria for Cosmopolitan Democracy? And, as a second, broader question: What benefits could a digital game that allows players to experience Cosmopolitan Democracy bring?

Delimitations 1.2.

Due to the complexity of Cosmopolitan Democracy and the scale of this paper, I will be focusing on how the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, its community and its Auto-Translate mechanic can be used to fulfil the requirements for age, gender, nationality and language equality set forth by Cosmopolitan Democracy. Concerning my second research question, data will be limited to secondary sources only, due to the scope of the paper.

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Definition of terms 1.3.

In Table 1 are definitions of the terms that are relevant to this paper.

Table 1. Definitions of terms

Duty Roulette A tool within FFXIV that allows players to automatically match with other players for cooperative group content, such as dungeons or raids, where players must work together to complete complex tasks. The player pool for these matches pulls from all people currently using the Duty Roulette within the local group of servers within a larger geographic region.

Final Fantasy XIV An MMORPG. Often shortened to “FFXIV”.

Free Company A player run organisation within FFXIV, similar to a clan or guild. Often shortened to “FC”.

Friends list A digital list of players that are considered friends, allowing for quick viewing of whether someone is online/offline and the ability to send private messages.

In real life A term used to distinguish the real world from the online or digital world, e.g.

IRL gender refers to a player’s actual gender, rather than that of their in-game avatar. Often shortened to “IRL”.

Massively

Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game

An online game where a large number of people, typically hundreds, play together on a shared server. The themes and settings of these worlds differ between games, from Science Fiction, Fantasy or even the real world. Often shortened to “MMORPG”.

Disposition 1.4.

This research paper has the following disposition: In Chapter 1 I give an introduction to the topic and the paper's purpose. Furthermore I describe the limitations of my study and the research question. Chapter 2 describes previous research within Cosmopolitan Democracy concerning the theory itself and the aspects being investigated. Previous research concerning video games, ideology and identification is also described. Chapter 3 presents the

methodology of the study. Chapter 4 presents the results gathered. Chapter 5 contains a discussion of the results relative to the theory presented previously. Chapter 6 contains my conclusion and explores future research options.

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Previous Research 2.

Cosmopolitan Democracy – an overview 2.1.

Over the past several decades the world has seen a growth of democratic states (Roser, 2013).

While it may be said that this can be cause for celebration concerning the freedom of people around the world, Cosmopolitan Democratic theorists would argue that this development is not enough (Archibugi, 2008). When discussing the nature of democracy, these theorists argue that democracy has five mainstays within its nature. Archibugi describes these mainstays as follows:

 Firstly, the journey to democracy is not yet over. In all states, whether they practice democracy or not, democratic principles are still expanding into spheres other than that of governmental structure such as the environment, animals, future generations and even economic spheres.

 Secondly, the journey towards democracy is endless. Democracy is more than

procedures and rules, it needs to be understood as an interactive process by those who partake in civil society.

 Thirdly, democracy is meaningful in its own historical context. Due to the democratic process changing over time, it is historical in nature and thus should be viewed in a comparative sense rather than as an absolute sense. It has, and continues to, change over time.

 Fourthly, democracy is based on competition, not conflict. The democratic process is an integral part of social dynamics and arises from the daily social and political struggles of the people. What makes democratic struggle different to other political regimes is that, within a democracy, the competing parties do not seek the annihilation of competing parties, but rather to make sure their ideals prevail within the framework of the shared system of rules.

 Finally, if a democracy is to work, then it requires an endogenous fabric. This is to say that there must be a will from the people. It requires bottom-up pressure for

democratic institutions to function.

Equality is a key factor within democracy. The principle of equality demands that all members of the community have equal rights and should thus not be discriminated against despite differing factors such as gender or age (Archibugi, 2008).

Due to the effects of globalisation, political power can no longer be assumed to be held solely by the state. Decisions made by a government may be undertaken not because of the will of their citizens, but due to actions of out of state actors. Thus, if the state can no longer generate the required conditions for its own democracy within its own borders, then it is time to transfer the democratic principle to an international stage (Held, 1997).

If democratic principles are to be extended beyond the state, then the principles of equality must also be extended. No matter a person's gender, age or nationality, all members of the human race must be treated equally and have equal opportunity to partake in a global democratic system (Archibugi, 2008). In order to achieve this, however, there must be a political system for the people to use. While a democratic system may not function acceptably

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if it was only on a global scale, Archibugi argues that a multi-leveled system of political authority located at the domestic, international and global level can generate a lasting normative framework in each respective domain (Archibugi, 1998, 2004).

For this to work, citizenship will change to have a two-fold role, that of the state and that of the world (Archibugi, 1998, 2004). According to Archibugi (2008) and Held (1997), this requires the creation of global bodies that are designed to facilitate the deliberation of interests in specific global issues. Furthermore, there will need to be an institutionalisation of a global citizenship status, that contains a mandatory core of rights concerning items such as political representation, participation and civic rights protections. Instruments of

accountability and transparency will also need to be implemented (Archibugi, 1998, 2004). In essence, this means that certain aspects of current national citizenship would need to be transferred to the global domain and a global citizenship so that issues that are considered a global problem can be tackled together. By creating this global citizenship, equality between people of different nations can be reached as there will no longer be nationality identifiers that trump the supra-national, global citizenship. Everyone will be considered a citizen of Earth.

This cosmopolitan democratic theory has not grown without criticism. Some critics argue that by extending citizenship to become global rather than national, thus creating a global identity and reducing the impacts of local and national identity, may cause a loss of solidarity in local areas that is required to maintain cohesion within society. Threats to identity must be taken seriously as history has shown when people feel insignificant or ignored they may respond with violence. A threat to local identity could result in tragedies such as the terror attack on the Twin Towers in the United States of America in September of 2001 (Archibugi, 2008; Calhoun, 2002).

Mouffe (2009) makes another argument against global identity, stating that the

creation of collective identities always entails the creation of an “us” and a “them”. While this relationship between the two parties does not have to be an antagonistic one, there is always the possibility of us/them becoming friend/enemy. Mouffe argues that it is impossible to create a collective identity without a “them” and that modern liberal democratic politics requires opposing sides. The goal should not be to unite people into a single collective unit, but to ensure that the relationship between us/them should be focused from antagonistic, a struggle between enemies, to agonism, a struggle between adversaries. A cosmopolitan democratic structure threatens the very dimension of the political (Mouffe, 2009).

If a linguistic medium is lacking, then institutions and individuals participating in a democratic system should create one artificially, if all are to be equal (Beck, 2006). This sentiment is met with Archibugi’s suggestion of political language equality through the global teaching of Esperanto. Considered a neutral language in terms of nationality, as it is no state’s native tongue, Archibugi (2008) argues that the teaching of Esperanto as a universal language will allow for representatives, and the citizens that they represent, to understand each other without a myriad of interpreters. This will create a more open and fluid communication channel between representatives. Research into second language acquisition shows that there are no negatives to learning a second language, and that knowing a secondary language can actually provide benefits to a person's mental health (Bialystok, 2011; Mehisto & Marsh, 2011). This means that there should be no objections to the learning of a universal language (Archibugi, 2008). This approach to language equality runs on the premise that the language of politics should not be one of identification, which is an argument for supporting multiple

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languages in global politics, but one of communication so that representatives can better cooperate for those they represent (Archibugi, 2008).

This suggestion too, has been met with criticism. The neutrality of Esperanto has come into question and been found to be more of a euro-centric language rather than completely neutral in structure (Parkvall, 2010). While a realist criticism to the suggestion argues how the process of a universal language has been slown or completely stalled when looking at the history of the world. The pull of cosmopolitanism has repeatedly lost out to nationalism and thus the will for a shared language, or even cosmopolitan global society simply does not exist in a strong enough form for the theory to work (Kymlicka, 2001).

Miller (2010) openly questions the feasibility of a Cosmopolitan Democracy. Focusing less on the suggested need for a supranational institution but rather if the process itself is accomplishable. With a world full of inequalities of wealth and income and clear lines of division due to culture, Miller does not question how a transition to a Cosmopolitan Democracy can occur, but if that transition is even plausible.

When studying Cosmopolitan Democracy in action, academics are currently limited to investigating aspects of the theory within non-cosmopolitan democratic models. This is due to the fact that there are currently no states practicing Cosmopolitan Democracy. This has

resulted in studies such as Frith’s (2008) study into Cosmopolitan Democracy Equality

concerning gender within EU polity or Hale and Koenig-Archibugi’s (2019) investigation into global polity values. These investigations show Cosmopolitan Democratic ideals within currently non-cosmopolitan democratic systems.

According to Fultner (2014), Habermas, who is one of the founders of Cosmopolitan Democracy, states that in order for Cosmopolitan Democracy to work people are going to need to go through a learning process so their identities can become more cosmopolitan

Games, Learning and Ideologies 2.2.

Learning through play has been a common strategy of teaching young children new skills for generations. In England, for instance, it is common to teach the alphabet and counting through various nursery rhymes. There is a multitude of published academic research on how learning through play can be shaped and optimized to produce the best learning results in participants including Broadhead & Burt’s Understanding young children's learning through play:

Building playful pedagogies (2012) and Macintyre’s Enhancing learning through play: A developmental perspective for early years settings (2011) just to name a few.

With this in mind, it should be of little surprise that computer games have been viewed by educators of the past and present as yet another medium for learning. Educational digital games, also known as edutainment, are designed to entertain and educate at the same time, for digital games, this practice has been around since the 1970s. Logo, released in 1970, taught users the basics of programming by having the player enter instructions to control a small turtle that could draw a line (Logo Foundation, n.d.) and Oregon Trail in 1971 teaching students American geography and history as they attempted to guide a family across the country in the 1800s (Bouchard, n.d.). In the late 1980s and early 1990s Nintendo entered the educational game market with their flagship mascot, Mario, in a series of games that taught a multitude of skills; from typing in Mario Teaches Typing (Interplay Entertainment Corp., 1992) to geography in Mario is Missing! (Buchanan, 2012). Today, the concept and design of edutainment has expanded from schools, to museums (Lepouras & Vassilakis, 2004;

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Grammenos et al., 2011; Feix, Göbel & Zumack, 2004) to government organisations and NGOs (Bogost, 2010).

Tactical Iraq is a game created to teach US soldiers Arabic that can be used in volatile situations and Virtual Iraq is a virtual simulation designed to lessen the effects of PTSD among combat veterans (Losh, 2006). America’s Army, is a US government funded first person shooter that was released in 2002 (Bogost, 2010). The game was openly publicized as an army recruitment and communications tool and aimed “to recreate the U.S. Army for the benefit of young civilians” (Zyda et al., 2003, p. 28). Within the first six months more than 600,000 players had completed the game’s combat training and basic rifle marksmanship, which is a necessary step to gain access to combat missions (Zyda et al., 2003). The game offers players “a realistic look at army personal and career opportunities via sophisticated role-playing” (Zyda et al., 2003, p. 28), which includes gun handling, how to time breathing during firing sequences and the American Army’s Rules of Engagement. If these rules are broken

reprisal is instant. He will find himself in a cell at Fort Leavenworth, accompanied by a mournful harmonica playing the blues. Continued violation of the rules may cause a player to be eliminated from the game. To rejoin, he must create a new ID and restart (Zyda et al., 2003, p. 30)

Through playing America’s Army, its training system and its punishment system, we can see that not only does the game educate players in weapon handling, it also introduces them to the rules and ideologies of the American Army (Bogost, 2010). These ideologies are further shown when analysing the gameplay of America’s Army combat missions. Two teams are placed on a map with opposing objectives, defense or offense. However, each team sees their avatars on screen in full US army uniform, each take on the role of the US army and never as the enemy. However, when looking at an opposing team's player, they are displayed as plain clothes renegades. Both teams believe they are the good guys. This may be

considered a clever use of game design, but if we follow the purpose of this decision further it can be seen as a reflection of US military ideology. The interchangeability of soldier and enemy shows the contemporary American assumption that military conflict is a matter of communication. America is always in the right, no matter the situation.

[...] one global, even transcendental situation guides both sides of the conflict. Perceptual equivalence reinforces the notion that military conflicts affirm a singular truth, one that is literally “seen” as identical from both vantage points. This line of thinking accurately represents contemporary U.S.

attitudes about military conflict. Our perspective is not only right, but there is no explanation for the opposition's behavior save wickedness. (Bogost, 2010, p. 78)

Inspired by the success of America’s Army, Food Force was created by the United Nations World Food Program to show an abstract simulation of how the U.N.’s emergency food program functions. Through six missions players are presented with different aspects of how the program operates. In one mission the player pilots a helicopter to locate refugees, in another they prepare food packages and in another mission players must airdrop the food packages to the desired location, taking into account things such as wind conditions in order to deliver the package. This game not only presents the player with the ideology and, in an abstract sense, the technical knowledge of how the food program works, but also serves as a manner to mount procedural rhetorics of legitimacy. If the player can understand what the Food program does and what it entails, they can begin to understand the legitimacy of the program as a whole (Bogost, 2010).

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Games are also being used as a method to fight against oppression as the recently released Minecraft map and server The Uncensored Library (The Uncensored Library, 2020) created by Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, shows. The creation of this map is due to the fact that many countries have their media controlled and manipulated by governmental bodies. However, RSF noticed a loophole within the systems that governments are using to control media, digital games. By creating a digital library in Minecraft, the world’s best- selling game currently, RSF are able to circumvent media censorship and grant players access to articles and media that would not normally be available (The Uncensored Library, 2020), such as articles from reporters Jamal Khashoggi, Yulia Berezovskaia and Mada Msar.

2.2.1. The Bias Against Games and Gamers

When discussing the topic of digital games it is often very common for the mind to

immediately jump to the stereotypical associations that society in the past has tied to them.

Games as a form of entertainment that offer the player little else, and the average computer game player, or gamer, is a young male child or teenager (Schiano, Nardi, Debeauvais, Ducheneaut & Yee, 2014; Griffiths, Davies & Chappell, 2003). This, however, is a very narrow and limited viewpoint on what digital games, and games in general, have to offer those that choose to play them. The average age of gamers was 29 years old in 2004 (Seay &

Kraut, 2007) and, as of 2020, is currently estimated to be between 31 and 35 years old (Cassie, n.d.; Grubb, 2017; Yanev, 2020).

Historically, we can see that as computers became more sophisticated and affordable they began to seep into everyday life. While it was unthinkable that the majority of the world would be able to afford a computer back in 1970, in today’s society of 2020 it is difficult to find a person in western society who isn’t walking around with a small computer in their pocket that is capable of surfing the internet, acting as a camera, playing games and making phone calls. Thus, the gaming demographic has broadened from the initiated few to the masses.

2.2.2. Games and Identity

While digital games allow players to experience situations that they would not normally be able to, such as a Russian citizen can experience US basic training through America’s Army, it would be remiss to believe that the player completely becomes the character that they control.

In My avatar, My self; Identity in video role-playing games (2007) Waggoner explores the relationship between player and avatar identity. While discussing this relationship Waggoner states that there are two identities to be considered during analysis. Firstly, the real world player, the one behind the keyboard or controller, and secondly, the avatar that is being controlled. Waggoner’s study shows a link between these two identities. While they may not always be the exact same, as a player can project or experience values that are not their own but the character’s such as the bravery to combat a mountain lion, there are links between the two identities. Several commenters in Waggoner’s study state how characteristics of both their real self and their digital avatar affect the other. From a player’s moral compass affecting the actions their avatar takes, to the avatar’s bravery influencing the player’s choice to take more risks in life.

Lee and Hoadley (2007) discovered similar results when using MMORPGs to allow students to experience different identities. The study showed that not only did players end up with a vested interest in their characters and thus their learning experience, but also that the

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ability to experience different identities and situations allowed them to gather knowledge that was deemed a vital component to their own personal growth and development. This result is not unique to Lee and Hoadley either, Bourgonjon, Rutten and Soetaert (2012) in a research project based on civic learning found that digital games allowed players to improve their critical reflection skills, which is considered an important component of citizenship within democracy.

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Methodology 3.

I have approached this problem and study from a Naturalist perspective. While the ontological perspective of Naturalism is of lesser importance compared to the epistemological,

Naturalism’s ontology believes that there is no fundamental difference between the natural world and the social world. Reality exists independent of ideas and theories that we have. The world's phenomena and their relations to one another are structured in universal patterns and regularities. It is naturalism’s Epistemological beliefs that play a more important role in the analysis of this study however. This epistemology states that we gain knowledge about the natural world in the same way that we gain knowledge about the social world, through observing facts. This means that there is no fundamental difference between the natural and social sciences (Moses & Knutsen, 2019). It is through the observation of facts and data that I will discern if FFXIV can fulfil the requirements set out by Cosmopolitan Democracy.

It is with this naturalist perspective, the belief that data driven studies provide facts, that facts prove and disprove theories, and these theories should hold a high level of

generalisability, that I am approaching this research problem. This study is a data driven solution to find a tool for what could be considered an endless theoretical debate. By

providing data that shows the appropriateness of a global community and the usefulness of an artificial lingua franca, academics on both sides of the Cosmopolitan Democratic argument could finally be able to provide data to prove their claims. Based on Naturalisms belief that theories and data have generalisability, if the community of FFXIV hold Cosmopolitan Democratic standards, if the Auto-Translate feature is used to communicate in a variety of situations and if digital games have been used successfully to show and allow players to experience ideologies and values that are not their own, then these can all be used by researchers to study Cosmopolitan Democracy.

Choice of research design 3.1.

The majority of the first hand data collected for this study is quantitative, as respondents are asked to measure their responses on a measurable scale. Due to the questions posed to

respondents which ask for player insights, opinions and practices, as well as an open question for elaboration and comments made by participants in the questionnaire thread. There is also some qualitative data that must be considered while creating my results and discussion. Due to this, I can say that this study is using a mixed methods research design as results combine both qualitative and quantitative data (Moses & Knutsen, 2019; Aramo-Immonen, 2011). To be more precise, this study uses an integrated mixed methodological design, meaning that the findings of qualitative and quantitative data are interspersed (Thaler, 2017).

Mixed method design brings with it both positives and negatives. On the one hand, mixing both qualitative and quantitative data allows for a greater data pool to be used for a study. This data touches upon both naturalist and constructivist approaches to social sciences, which means that results from such a data set can allow for quantitative data that supports qualitative theories. Theoretically, this should add validity to the study as it caters to both naturalists and constructivists. On the other hand, mixing methods and data is more time consuming. It can lead to a researcher being spread thin as there is a lot of varied data to

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gather and analyse. Resulting in more time spent sorting relevant data from irrelevant data before analysis can begin (Moses & Knutsen, 2019). I have tried to avoid the excessive data problem by limiting my study to only using data from my questionnaire.

Data gathering method 3.2.

Using FFXIV as a case study for MMORPGs, data has been gathered via a questionnaire.

A link to the questionnaire was posted on the FFXIV fan subreddit,

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/, henceforth r/FFXIV, which had 351,645 subscribed members at the time of asking for participants, April 2020. This fan site was chosen over the official forums for FFXIV for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Square Enix, the creators of FFXIV, separate their official forums into regional servers based on language making it difficult to find a unified global forum where all players may visit. Secondly, I could not obtain permission to post the questionnaire to the official forums. Finally, r/FFXIV offers an international, cross-server community, meaning that its subscribers are located in the America, European and Japanese servers, which are the three servers available to play on within the game. Considering that Cosmopolitan Democracy concerns global cooperation and opinions, the fact that this subreddit contains a global user base was a fitting location to gather data.

This means that data was gathered using a convenience sampling method (Bryman, 2016). The accessibility of both r/FFXIV, the community’s willingness and support to

participate in the study, as well as the subreddit’s subscriber size offered a very approachable situation to conduct a study on MMORPGs in this manner.

While the r/FFXIV community did offer much, there were still limitations to my study. Firstly, the questionnaire that I posted was only available in English. This limited my respondents to only English speakers, be they first or second language speakers. Had the questionnaire been available in multiple languages, such as all supported by FFXIV, then the number of respondents may have been higher and more varied. However, considering the limitations of budget and time for this study, I was unable to offer the questionnaire in anything but English.

Secondly, the questionnaire was only posted to r/FFXIV. This means that only the r/FFXIV community is represented in the data gathered, rather than that of the entirety of the FFXIV player base. Had more time been available, it would have been advantageous to ask additional FFXIV communities to participate in the study.

Finally, the questionnaire was only available to be answered between the 15th and 30th of April, 2020. Were more time available and if I was able to continually ask for respondents, increasing visibility of the questionnaire, then more data may have been made available. However, it is considered bad form to repeatedly re-post the same thread within r/FFXIV (Rules for r/ffxiv, n.d.), so the one thread that was created was the only option available. To note, the majority of answers to the questionnaire came within the first week totalling around 600 of the 877 responses, thus, extending the answering period, without the ability to repost most likely would have resulted in a marginal increase in responses at most.

Responses to the questionnaire were entirely voluntary. In order to answer the

questionnaire, a person needed to click into the reddit thread where a brief description of what the questionnaire was asking about was given. They then needed to click a link again to take them to the questionnaire. Once the questionnaire was accessed a more detailed description about the study was given, respondents were informed that all data would be confidential and

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only used for this study. Furthermore, once all questions had been answered, respondents were once again asked for their consent before any data was processed.

All data gathered is completely anonymous. Responses have been labeled solely by number so that individual questionnaire answers can be studied independently if desired, but cannot be traced back to each respondent.

The Questionnaire 3.3.

The questionnaire itself was created using Google’s Google Forms application. This program was chosen because it made the questionnaire accessible for editing no matter my location.

The program was also extremely easy to use and required no training on my side, meaning that the questionnaire could be created in a timely manner and not detract from time spent for other aspects of the study. Google Forms offered a high level of customisation which allowed me to create an intuitive, easy to use, form for respondents to use. Questions were separated into topics of age, gender, nationality, and Auto-Translate. Only one topic was displayed to the respondent at any one time, as seen in Appendix 1, figure 1 through 9. As progress to further questions could not be achieved until the current page was completed, there was no possibility for latter questions to influence earlier answers on the initial run through of the questionnaire.

The questionnaire, Appendix 1, consisted of quantitative questions concerning the topics of identity and language and one qualitative question where respondents were free to add any additional information that they thought pertinent to the study. This qualitative question appeared at the end of the questionnaire, before a consent to participate request, so that they were aware of all topics the questionnaire covered.

In terms of identifiers, respondents were asked questions about age, gender and nationality. Age and gender were chosen topics because in the real world, they are

immediately apparent, at least within a reasonable margin of error. Research has shown that opinions and preconceptions of people occur immediately based on a person’s appearance (Olivola & Todorov, 2010). While opinions and preconceptions can change, these judgements exist. Cosmopolitan Democracy requires all people to be treated equally, thus it is important to know if these identifiers hold any value to the respondents, in the interest of fairness to all.

Nationality was another identifier that was chosen to question respondents on. As

Cosmopolitan Democracy requires that all people are treated equally, by governmental bodies and citizens alike, despite nationality, it is important that knowledge on the value of

nationality in respondents is measured, in order to see if the FFXIV community are compatible with Cosmopolitan Democratic ideals.

Language questions inquired into the mother tongue(s) of respondents, the language that they primarily used in game and whether the Auto-Translate feature of FFXIV was used in certain circumstances. These were important pieces of data to gather for study as I am investigating if the Auto-Translate feature could be a useful method of communicating when normal, conventional means are not possible or practical.

Additionally, questions on the respondents background variables, in the form of area of residence and data center they play on, so that a more in depth study could be conducted to see how values on identifiers and Auto-Translate use may fluctuate between regions. Every question was created with a basis in purpose for the research question/hypothesis of this study.

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Author’s Prior Knowledge 3.4.

I have been playing computer games, either on consoles or PCs, for almost as long as I can personally remember. Growing up in a tech-savvy household and encouraged to explore all things new that technology had to offer, I have a rather positive outlook on what software and hardware can provide the world beyond what it already does. While I am still cautious about matters of data security and online privacy, I view technology as a step forward in society with unexplored benefits.

Concerning Cosmopolitan Democracy, I was introduced to the concept by Hans Agné in his course War and Democracy held at Stockholm University in the autumn term of 2019.

During the course the idealistic nature of Cosmopolitan Democracy’s beliefs often left me feeling conflicted. On the one hand, if everything the theory promises were to be delivered, then the idealist in me would be immeasurably happy. On the other hand, the realist in me could simply not accept a blind belief that this was a theory that could be put into practice. I would often be present on the side of a debate that wanted proof that this theory can work.

These potential biases towards technology and Cosmopolitan Democracy have been kept in check through constant self-reflection during the writing process of this paper, as well as with frequent meetings with my supervisor Jens Marquardt and peers.

Why Final Fantasy XIV?

3.5.

Final Fantasy XIV, hereafter FFXIV, is the fourteenth main series installment within the Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy, currently owned and developed by SquareEnix, is a celebrated roleplaying game series the world over. While most of the Final Fantasy series consists of single player games, Final Fantasy XI and FFXIV have brought the franchise into the MMORPG genre (Square Enix, n.d.).

FFXIV was chosen for this study because, compared to other large MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft which has players choose one of two sides in an ongoing conflict upon character creation (Blizzard Entertainment, 2020), it encourages the working together of its player base no matter their character choices. Upon character creation players are able to choose from a multitude of different races to play, for example the short Lalafells, the cat-like Miqo’te or the elfen Elezen. These avatars can then be customised with players able to change height, hair style, hair colour, face, tattoos/makeup and many other aspects of their avatar (FFXIV Wiki, 2019b; Square Enix, 2020). Many of these options can be changed after character creation with an in-game hairdresser, known as the Aesthetician, meaning players are not locked into their initial decisions (FFXIV Wiki, 2019a). Players must also choose a class to play as such as Gladiator, Archer or Conjurer (Square Enix, 2020). Much like avatar appearance, these classes can be changed by the player meaning their avatars are not locked in to the decisions made by the player at the very start of their journey. This differs from many other MMORPGs which lock an avatar into these decisions, requiring the creation of more avatars if the player wants to experience other modes of play. Class swapping is a core part of the FFXIV experience, with upgrades to classes becoming unlocked as a player progresses (FFXIV Wiki, 2020b). The ability to swap classes on the fly allows for a flexible playerbase that can fill many roles where in other games they could normally only fill one.

The fact that all players are considered “on the same side” provides a level of unity within the player base, whereas World of Warcraft’s two-sided conflict provides a level of forced conflict between players (Blizzard Entertainment, 2020). Considering this study is

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investigating if MMORPGs can provide a platform to study Cosmopolitan Democracy, forced conflict is a trait that should be avoided as it could obfuscate any actual conflict between players that occurs naturally.

FFXIV also offers players with a chat tool called “Auto-Translate”, a feature that allows players to pick from hundreds of pre-set words to create sentences that, once sent, will be automatically translated to any reader's language setting within their game client (FFXIV Wiki, 2020a). As this study is also investigating if MMORPGs can fulfil Cosmopolitan Democracy’s requirement for a shared, non-oppressive lingua franca, the usefulness and capability of this Auto-Translate feature is a prudent piece of technology to research as it may provide part of the missing tool needed to test Cosmopolitan Democracy in action.

With these two factors in mind, FFXIV offers the opportunity to study subjects whose identity is completely anonymous and can be changed at will, who also have the option to communicate with people via a lingua franca that does not require the user to learn another, secondary, language.

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Results 4.

The results displayed in this chapter show the answers given by 877 respondents to the questionnaire located in Appendix 1. The complete results for all multiple choice questions are presented in Appendix 2 through 9. The first graph in each shows all respondents’

answers, while the following three graphs indicate answers from the specific server regions, North America, Europe and Japan. This was done to look for variation in patterns between regions so that a more in depth analysis could occur. All graphs omit the answers of “Don’t know/Not applicable” as these answers add no value to the analysis given the context of the questions.

On Identification Equality 4.1.

All results from questions on age, gender and nationality can be found in Appendix 4 to 9.

Results concerning respondent knowledge of gender, age and nationality all show that for those that could be considered regular contacts for the respondents, members of their Free Company, hereafter FC, and Friend list, some level of knowledge of gender, age and

nationality was common. This trend held true for all regions with the majority of answers indicating that respondents knew the age, gender and nationality of “Some” or “Most” of their contacts, see Appendix 4, 5 and 6. However, concerning knowledge of age, gender and

nationality for players met via Duty Roulette or other situations, the answers from

respondents of all servers show a clear lack of knowledge, with “I don’t know anyone’s…”

answers heavily outweighing all other choices. While some respondents did answer that they know this information of “Some” players in these situations. Comments from respondents indicate that in some instances this was because the language being spoken makes it possible.

For example one respondent commented

[...] many European languages have clear indication of the person's gender (e.g. Russian, French, Spanish, Italian...) [...] I mechanically learn the gender of people who interact in language other than English because they [...] use gender-appropriate endings [...]

These results indicate that as a respondent is more familiar with someone, they know more identifying information about them.

The importance of knowing these identifiers was heavily weighted to answers of “Not important at all”. While some respondents did indicate that age, gender and nationality

knowledge was “Slightly important”, these answers were still heavily outweighed by the “Not important at all” camp. These trends were true for all servers, as seen in Appendix 7, 8 and 9.

Despite the majority of respondents stating knowledge of identifiers was not

important, results did indicate that this knowledge held at least some importance concerning players who were in the same FC or on the Friends list of the respondents. Comments from respondents that answered these identifiers hold some importance suggest that this was because the respondents wanted to be able to cater their conversations to be age appropriate, address other players by their preferred pronouns or that nationality knowledge is important to be able to relate to what a player is going through or to make backup plans in case of

unforeseen circumstances.

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Regarding the questions on whether or not I deem the nationality/gender of my FC mates as

important: The nationality is important in the context of us being a tight-knit group and we share real life news with one another based on where people are located, in case of unforeseen circumstances etc. The gender aspect really doesn't matter to me personally, I judge people by their personality, but we do have members who wish not to be misgendered by accident, which is why I marked it as

"somewhat important", since we take note of their pronouns in order to not accidentally make them upset. :)

Mirroring the results of knowledge of identifiers, the importance of knowing identifiers of other players via Duty Roulette or in other circumstances was considered “Not at all important” by over 90 % of the respondents, see Figure 30 (Appendix 7), Figure 34 (Appendix 8), and Figure 38 (Appendix 9).

On Language and Auto-Translate 4.2.

4.2.1. Mother tongue and In-game languages

Before reviewing the use and opinions of Auto-Translate by participants, it is important to take note of answers concerning mother tongue and primary language use in FFXIV by participants. This knowledge plays an integral role in contextualising the answers from participants who are playing in different server regions by showing if language variation exists within a server region. It is also important to note that questions regarding which region a respondent lives in and which regions servers they play on show that the majority of

respondents play and live in the same region. However, Japanese server respondents are not all from Japan. In fact the Japanese server respondents were almost equally split between Asia and Oceania residents, indicating that the Japanese servers cater to a player base that is not only Japanese, but spans multiple regions.

The results for mother tongue and language used by participants shows that the overall majority of respondents, over 80 %, within the North American server have English as their mother tongue while only two respondents of the 544 North American server participants answered that English is not their primary language of communication in game.

European server participants had a much more varied split in mother tongue languages with 29 % stating English as their first language, followed by 20 % having German, 8 % French and then another 12 languages each at 5 % or lower respondent answers. Concerning primary language used within FFXIV, of the 277 respondents from the European servers, only 3 respondents stated that they did not use English as their primary language of

communication. However, 34 of these respondents did state that they used one or more languages in addition to English for communication within FFXIV.

Of the 53 Japanese server respondents, 64 % stated that English was their mother tongue, 6 % stated bilingual mother tongues with one of these languages being English and all other respondents fell into one of six other languages holding 4 % or lower of answers. Only 1 participant stated not using English as their primary language in FFXIV, 34 participants only used English as their primary language, 14 respondents used a mix of Japanese and English. 3 participants stated they used English, Japanese and a third language, these three languages were Tagalog, Korean and French. Finally, 1 participant stated that they used a mixture of English and Bahasa Indonesia.

These results show that the North American server is primarily a monolingual server where almost the entirety of the population communicates in their mother tongue. European

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server participants, while still primarily communicating in English, have a more varied amount of native languages and only 29 % of those communicating in English have the language as their mother tongue. The Japanese servers, with the lowest number of respondents, had a higher percentage of native English speakers than European server respondents and only 1 respondent stated to not use English as a primary language of

communication. Important to note, however, are the multiple comments from Japanese server participants stating that there is a very mixed population within the Japanese servers that do not share any common languages. These comments further explain how, no matter the

language(s) the participant used, Auto-Translate was an important feature for communication between the players of the Japanese servers as they contain players from all over Asia.

4.2.2. Use of the Auto-Translate feature

The first set of questions concerning Auto-Translate asked respondents to describe how often they used the feature in varying situations. The graphs containing the results for these

questions can be found in Appendix 2.

Concerning the use of the Auto-Translate feature provided by FFXIV, respondents’

answers show that the feature is primarily not used between members of the same FC or between players who are on each other’s friends list. This pattern holds true for the North American and European servers (see Figure 11 and 12 in Appendix 2), however Japanese server respondents did show a higher use of the Auto-Translate feature with FC members and Friends in the “Yes, sometimes” and “Yes, often” categories (see Figure 13 in Appendix 2).

There is a climb in the use of the Auto-Translate function when looking at Duty Roulette communication. American Server participants do still have a majority answer of not using the feature, however this is more closely contested with the “Yes, sometimes” answer than with FC and Friends. If all variations of “Yes” are combined, it can be seen that the majority of respondents do use the feature during Duty Roulette. European server respondents show an even larger climb in the Auto-Translate feature with only 30 % stating that they don’t use the feature at all during Duty Roulette. The Japanese server respondents, however, show an extremely large climb in use of Auto-Translate with almost 50 % of respondents stating they always use the feature during Duty Roulette activities. Meanwhile, just under 4 % of

respondents here stated that they never use the feature at all.

Results for the use of Auto-Translate for trading between players show that the

majority of respondents do not use the feature at all, few use it “Sometimes” and even less use the feature “Often”, there were no respondents who stated they always used the feature. This trend holds true for all servers (see Appendix 2).

For “Other types of communication” a similar pattern to the Duty Roulette results can be seen once again, with North America Server respondents primarily not using Auto-

Translate, Europe Server respondents showing more using it than not, and Japanese Server respondents heavily using the feature for communication (see Figure 11, 12 and 13 in Appendix 2).

These results all indicate that, no matter the server, the use of Auto-Translate increases as respondents are less familiar with those that they are communicating with.

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4.2.3. Perceived usefulness of the Auto-Translate feature The second set of questions concerning Auto-Translate asked respondents to rate the

usefulness of the feature in the same situations as the first set of questions. These results can be found in Appendix 3. In situations where players are more likely to be familiar with each other, FC and Friends lists, the feature was, for the most part, primarily considered not useful at all by most respondents from the North American and European servers. However, these same situations offered a much more even showing of responses from Japanese server respondents.

Within Duty Roulette activities, Auto-Translate was considered “Slightly useful” to

“Very useful” by the majority of all respondents (see Figure 14 in Appendix 3). This trend is true for all servers but results show that the opinion of usefulness of Auto-Translate increases as a server becomes less monolingual. North American server participants were almost evenly split between “Slightly useful” and “Very useful” in terms of which was more popular (see Figure 15 in Appendix 3). European server respondents show the same trend as their North American counterparts but with a slightly larger lean to “Very useful” (see Figure 16 in Appendix 3). Japanese server respondents, however, almost exclusively answered “Very useful” (see Figure 17 in Appendix 3).

In the “Trading” and “Other” categories, results also show an increase in considered usefulness when compared to FC and Friends list usefulness. Once again, European server respondents, on average, rate the feature higher than North American respondents, while Japanese server respondents rate the feature more useful than both other servers (see Appendix 3).

Mirroring the results for when Auto-Translate is used, the results for how useful the feature is show a higher degree of perceived usefulness the less familiar a respondent is with players that they are interacting with (see Appendix 3).

Several respondents from the Japanese servers stressed the importance of the Auto- Translate feature for their servers stating that it was not only very useful, but “practically necessary for communication in randomised duties and raids.” Another respondent described the tool as “vital” for communication, but it is the following comment that most clearly represents the message that these respondents were sending:

I am in Tonberry [a japanese server], where many people use auto translation feature to communicate because there is no lingua franca in here. Lots of japanese people don't understand english, lots of non japanese prople [sic] don't understand japanese.

I come from Indonesia, a country in South East Asia. My FC is the 8th most active FC in Tonberry consist mostly players from Indonesia and a tiny bit of Malaysian, Singaporean, and Brunei. We speak in Bahasa Indonesia, no auto translation needed when communicating in FC.

In South East Asia alone, even though we understand English, many of us feel more comfortable communicating using auto translation rather than speaking directly with English.

A non japanese speaker in Tonberry usually come from South East Asia, Australia/New Zealand.

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Discussion 5.

By applying the results of the questionnaire, and also the literature review into games and education, I am now going to make the argument that MMORPGs, their communities and their mechanics can fulfil the requirements of Cosmopolitan Democracy in order to allow academics to study Cosmopolitan Democracy in action, rather than be restricted to aspects of the theory in real world situations.

The results from my questionnaire concerning the knowledge of a players age, gender and nationality as well as the importance of this information, show a clear indication that the player base of FFXIV simply do not find these identifiers important when interacting with one another (see Appendix 7, 8 and 9). While age, gender and nationality may be important pieces of information for those a player is close to, they are only so because players wish to be able to refer to one another with correct pronouns and understand the situations that one another are in better. There was no indication from respondents that these identifiers were in any way important in terms of segregation, only understanding. This finding goes against Miller’s (2010) criticism that people with differing cultures cannot come together. The results show a clear lack of importance for these identifiers when we look at the results for the importance of age, gender and nationality in Duty Roulette, trading and other instances of interaction. All of these are examples of situations where players interact and cooperate with complete strangers.

This indicates that players can come together, despite differences, to achieve a complicated mutual goal. While Duty Roulette does put players into an “us vs them” situation as described by Mouffe, the “them” in these situations is computer controlled artificial intelligence,

creating unity without real enemies, i.e. the enemies are not players within the game, or people in the real world. I am making the argument here, that the respondents to the questionnaire, the FFXIV MMORPG players, have learnt to think in a more cosmopolitan manner, as Habermas requires (Fultner, 2014). This means that the FFXIV community offers a large player base where the Cosmopolitan democratic requirements for attitude towards equality has already been met, at least in terms of age, gender and nationality. If these players agree to participate in future studies, then researchers now have an identified data pool of participants that meet the base requirements for Cosmopolitan Democratic research.

Beck (2006) and Archibugi (2008) argue that equality in terms of language is also a requirement for Cosmopolitan Democracy to function, that everyone must be able to understand one another. While Kymlicka (2001) states that such a language is not needed, otherwise one would have already been created and used. The Auto-Translate feature of FFXIV shows not only that such a need has arisen within the FFXIV world, but that such a language has, in fact, been created. The use of this feature matches Archibugi’s (2008) suggestion for the use of Esperanto, where people use their preferred language between friends, but switch to using Auto-Translate with strangers who do not seem to share a common language. Auto-Translate has been described as “vital” and “practically necessary”

for complicated cooperative tasks in Duty Roulette within the Japanese servers where players do not share a common lingua franca. Auto-Translate offers one key advantage over

Archibugi’s suggestion of teaching the world Esperanto, it does not require users to learn a completely new language. Instead, users can select what they wish to say in their own

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language of choice, and then the message will be displayed to all recipients in their language of choice.

While it is currently impossible to test Cosmopolitan Democracy on a large scale within the real world, the literature review into games and education shows how games have been used in the past to not only teach people school subjects such as maths and geography, but also much more complex subjects such as ideologies and experiences. If the American army can use computer games to recruit soldiers by allowing those interested to experience the values, rules and situations that they would be subject to were they to enter the armed forces. If the UN can show the world the value and procedures of its emergency food program via Food Force (Bogost, 2010) and teachers can use MMORPGs to allow students to

experience different cultures and values (Lee & Hoadley, 2007), which improve their critical reflection skills (Bourgonjon, Rutten & Soetaert, 2012). Then there should be no reason that proponents and critics of Cosmopolitan Democracy cannot also utilise games to create a digital world where the suggested Cosmopolitan Democratic models are in place and can be used by players of MMORPGs, such as FFXIV, who already show aspects of the

requirements for attitude towards equality that Cosmopolitan Democracy requires. Attitudes that transcend the digital world and affect the real world as Waggoner (2007) shows with his research. By creating such a game, or creating systems and FCs within already existing games such as FFXIV, data on how Cosmopolitan Democracy actually works can be gathered, rather than aspects of the theory within other types of democractic models. This would allow for the endless back and forth debate over the functionality of the theory to stop. As an actual

working simulation of the theory can be created, with real people who are located all over the globe participating, which will show if the Cosmopolitan Democratic theory functions, where the theory needs adjustments to become functional or if it functions at all.

Digital games offer players a way to experience events and ideologies that they normally cannot. With the creation of a game, or modifying an existing game, that focuses on Cosmopolitan Democracy, researchers will not only be able to gather valuable data on the functionality of the Cosmopolitan Democratic theoretical model, but also be able to expose players to a political system that is currently not practiced on a large scale anywhere in the world. If supporters of Cosmopolitan Democracy really wish for the theory to become reality, a clear message of what is being offered to the world must be made for those that are

supposed to be practicing Cosmopolitan Democracy, the people.

To answer the initial research question of How can MMORPGs and their mechanics fulfil the criteria for Cosmopolitan Democracy? I answer that MMORPGs and their

mechanics, specifically FFXIV, offer researchers a large global community, beyond state borders, who show that they fulfil the requirements of equality in regards to age, gender and nationality that Cosmopolitan Democracy advocates. As well as a language tool that can act as a neutral lingua franca allowing for equality in language.

Additionally, to answer my secondary, broader question, What benefits could a digital game that allows players to experience Cosmopolitan Democracy bring?, previous research has shown that digital games allow players to experience events, ideologies and cultures that are not their own. Through experience, players form a better understanding of what is being presented to them and take these understandings into the real world, where it shapes their decisions and actions. By creating a game, or using an existing one, that is focused on Cosmopolitan Democracy, players will be able to better understand the concept and experience how a Cosmopolitan Democracy functions. Furthermore, researchers would be

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able to collect data on how the created Cosmopolitan Democracy functions while real people interact and shape the digital world that has been created. This data can then be used to support claims towards Cosmopolitan Democratic theory, rather than having claims revolve around pure theory.

Reflections after conducting the questionnaire 5.1.

I feel that the experience I have gained from conducting this questionnaire has been immense.

Were I to repeat this process again in the future I would change several factors compared to what is presented in this study.

Firstly, the wording of the questions and answers available to respondents could be improved. By combining “Don’t know/Not applicable” as an answer for respondents, it could be argued that this makes the answer ambiguous. “Not applicable” could be interpreted to mean the respondents think the question is not meaningful enough for them to answer, while

“Don’t know” could indicate that the respondents have forgotten relevant information or are on the fence between the options available. While I don’t believe this is the case in my questionnaire, as the questions are more factual in nature, it is certainly an issue that needs to be kept in mind for future questionnaires that I write. Wording and semantics are important.

Secondly, I did not account for respondents that may have more than one server that they play on. This issue was mentioned by several respondents in the comment section of the questionnaire. While this did not affect the majority of respondents, were I to repeat this study I feel that it would be important to either reword the questions concerning region server to ask for the primary server that respondents play on, or to give an option where respondents could select multiple servers. The latter change would make analysis of data harder though.

Finally, after reading the comments from respondents, it was made clear that the Auto- Translate feature is highly valued and used on the Japanese servers. Respondents repeatedly mentioned this to especially be the case on the Tonberry server. Had this been known to me before beginning this study, I would have dedicated some extra time to finding other websites and communities to post this questionnaire. However, in the little time that I had available once the results were in, I was unable to find a unified community forum that seemed to be visited by multiple different language speakers of the Tonberry server. This type of website may not actually exist, due to the lack of a lingua franca as stated by respondents, but more time would be needed to confirm this. Were I able to get cooperation from more members of the Tonberry server, or any Japanese server, then the insights into the use and value of the Auto-Translate feature between groups that do not share a lingua franca may have been deeper. However, this would most likely require the ability to translate the questionnaire into multiple different languages in order to actually get the responses desired.

Department of Political Science